7 THE CAUSAL BEING

THE CAUSAL ENVELOPE

7.1 Generals
The goal of the monad in the first triad is to centre itself in the second triad. This requires a
bridge between the two triads. That bridge is the causal envelope with the consciousness of its
matter.
2
The causal envelope is, like envelopes of all other kinds (except the organism), an
aggregate envelope.
3
The causal envelope is a gift from Augoeides. It is the causal envelope that makes the
individual a human being. It cannot incarnate into an animal body. It can never be possessed
by another individual. Obsession ensues when an emotional being succeeds in taking
possession of the organism with its etheric envelope during sleep, when the rightful owner has
left the organism.
4
The most important functions of the causal envelope are as follows: to make up a
permanent envelope for the first triad; to supply the self with centres of consciousness
enabling the self to connect with the units of the second triad; to convey energies from the
second and third triads to the first triad.
5
The causal envelope is a causal being with passive causal consciousness. This
consciousness cannot be perceived by any consciousness lower than 47:5, and even by this
consciousness only sporadically. It will be the task of man to activate this passive
consciousness and in so doing acquire subjective and objective consciousness in his causal
envelope. This requires tens of thousands of incarnations by the causal envelope. As long as
man is found at the physical stage of barbarism or at the lower emotional stage of civilization,
any contact with causal consciousness is precluded. It is only at the higher emotional stage of
culture, the stage of the mystic (48:3), that a contact is possible. Until then, incarnation is the
only possibility for man to be conscious at all, namely, in his envelopes of incarnation in
which the monad acquired consciousness already in the animal kingdom.
6
Man must acquire subjective as well as objective consciousness in 47:3 and 47:2 before the
monad can move from the mental molecule to the mental atom and become a causal self.
7
When the monad can finally centre itself in the essential atom (46:1) of the second triad, it
becomes an essential self. Thereby the monad is able to form its own causal envelope through
the vibrations of the second triad mental atom (47:1). Then the old causal envelope, the gift by
Augoeides, becomes superfluous and is dissolved.
8
The causal envelope is a channel for those higher energies which, through the triad units,
vitalize the centres of the envelopes of incarnation as long as these envelopes are deemed
necessary to exist for the purpose intended by the incarnation.
9
The fact that all worlds and all material forms need to be renewed at certain intervals is due
to the fact that all material aggregates are worn out as they are affected by vibrations of higher
kinds (being so much more powerful than even the next lower kind).
10
If diseases arise in the envelopes, this is the effect of dysfunction in their centres
(overstimulation, inability to absorb the right vibrations, wrong distribution of vibrations
received, etc.).
11
Causal matter cannot be affected by disharmonious vibrations. Agreement with reality
manifests itself as harmony, which is the explanation of Platons thesis that ideas are
simultaneously true, good, beautiful, and, above all, energy.
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7.2 The Two Causal Envelopes

During incarnation, the causal being consists of two envelopes: the greater causal envelope
and the lesser triad envelope. The triad envelope is the incarnating part of the causal envelope.
It encloses the first triad and surrounds the envelopes of incarnation proper: the mental, the
emotional, the physical etheric envelope, and the organism. The greater causal envelope,
which Augoeides takes care of, remains during incarnation in the causal world. After an
incarnation has been concluded and the envelopes have been dissolved, the triad envelope
coalesces with the causal envelope.
2
In the first self, the incarnating part of the causal envelope the triad envelope extends
about 50 cm beyond the organism, surrounding all the other envelopes of incarnation. In the
causal self, the causal envelope is not divided at incarnation. In this kind of self, the envelope
has reached a great extension, having a radius of many metres.
3
The triad envelope is for the monad in the first triad its particular envelope for a certain
incarnation. The content of this envelope exhibits the stage of development the monad has
attained. The stage also appears from the material composition of the lower envelopes.
4
The molecules of the causal envelope have followed the triad envelope in incarnation
thousands of times and have learnt from experiences they have had. These molecules have
specialized in various spheres of life according to their individual characters. The horoscope
for a certain incarnation indicates what kind of specialists enter into the new triad envelope
this time.
5
The mental atoms (47:1) and causal molecules (47:2,3) making up the content of the
greater causal envelope belong, like all matter, to the seven departments. Just like all other
kinds of envelopes, the causal envelope is composed of atoms and molecules of all the seven
departments, although some one of the seven always dominates. The dominant department is
intended whenever the department of the causal envelope is mentioned, as if this were the
only one. The department of the causal envelope is constant during a very long series of
incarnations. Which department dominates the mental atoms making up the causal envelope
depends on the individuals mode of causalization.
6
The new triad envelope formed before each incarnation is of a certain department. Which
department this is depends on the percentage of atoms and molecules of this department. The
selection of matter at the forming of the triad envelope is made according to the law of
destiny. It has not yet been announced on what principles the selection of molecules is made
in the individual case. We know, however, that the principle is always suited to the
individuals consciousness development with a view to his acquisition of lacking qualities and
abilities. These are not acquired in one single incarnation but in percentages up to one hundred
in a long series of physical lives.
7
As long as man is in incarnation, there is an opposition between the causal envelope and
the triad envelope and a tension between the energies of the two envelopes, not least because
of the fact that they, but for some exceptional cases, are of different departments.
8
The term, twin souls, which ignorance has picked up and about which it can only
produce erroneous hypotheses, refers to the two causal envelopes. Also the tale of the twins
Pollux and Castor, in its original version, bore upon the two envelopes. It is an unforgettable
experience when the individual has the opportunity to directly compare between what he can
do as Castor and as Pollux in the same thing. Then he is not important any more.
9
In elementary presentation, the two envelopes are not distinguished, but both are called the
causal envelope. This is suitable also psychologically in order that man learn to view these
twins as the unity they are. This also makes it easier for the self to identify with the
consciousness of its causal envelope. As long as the self remains in its triad envelope, it is an
unconscious causal being, but it should work at becoming a conscious causal being.
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Understanding this is very important for it facilitates the selfs contact with and development
of causal consciousness. I am a potential causal self although I am not yet conscious in my
causal envelope is a good mantra. It will raise you above much of the everyday bustle and
liberate you from identification with lower envelopes.
10
Expedient methods for the activation of consciousness have been lacking in the West.
That is why yoga philosophers with their eastern views and methods, which are unsuitable for
Westerners, have caused seekers unnecessarily complicated and often misleading work. It is
important that the eastern methods are superseded by western ones. The western methods, put
upon the groundwork of esoterics, can be made considerably simpler, since esoterics is the
knowledge of reality, which the yoga philosophy is not. The works of Laurency are attempts at
simplifying this psychological procedure.
7.3 The Expansion of the Causal Envelope
That causal envelope, which the individual receives from Augoeides at causalization, is
only the outermost protective shell of mental atoms (47:1). To begin with, this shell is filled
with causal involutionary matter of the lowest kind (47:3) whose consciousness passively
mirrors the ideas of the causal world. It is the task of the self first to activate that causal
involutionary matter and then to change it for causal evolutionary matter and to fill up the
envelope with it.
2
This is done in the course of incarnations to the extent that the self acquires understanding
of the correspondences in the physical world of the causal ideas and applies the knowledge so
gained in living life. The passive causal matter accompanying the triad envelope when it
incarnates is involved into mans lower envelopes of incarnation and thereby becomes
activated by the self. Understanding of ideas also has the effect that activated causal matter
from the surrounding causal world is incorporated with the triad envelope. Later, upon the
conclusion of the incarnation, all involved causal matter is incorporated with the triad
envelope and, when the two causal envelopes coalesce, also with the greater causal envelope.
Thus grows the greater causal envelope in extent as the individual develops more and more.
3
The causal envelope serves in the beginning only as a collector envelope for the activated
causal matter supplied by the self during its thousands of incarnations. At mankinds lower
stages of development, this supply is extremely sparse and consists of causal molecules of the
lowest kind (47:3) only.
4
When the original shell has been filled up with activated causal matter of the lowest
molecular kind (47:3), and the individual has attained the highest emotional level (48:2), 47:3
molecules start being exchanged for 47:2 molecules. When, at the humanist stage, the
envelope consists equally of molecules of these two kinds, they begin to be exchanged for
mental atoms (47:1).
5
After the envelope has been filled up with mental atoms only, it can begin to swell and
reach a considerable size. Just as the mental envelope grows in extent the more mental ideas
are supplied to it, so the causal envelope swells the more esoteric ideas (second selfs ideas)
the individual assimilates.
6
In the beginning of its existence, the causal envelope appears colourless and void, since its
molecules are in an inactive, passive state, being activated only by vibrations in the causal
world. To the extent that the monad, during tens of thousands of incarnations, supplies the
causal envelope with matter it has itself activated, the matter of the envelope grows
increasingly luminous, so that, when mans consciousness development is concluded, the
causal envelope shines in various colours: rose (impersonal affection), yellow (intelligence),
blue (devotion, worship, admiration), green (sympathy), violet (aspiration).
7
The causal molecules that compose the triad envelope are only partially the same at the
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subsequent incarnation. However, a sufficiently great part of them follows along, so that the
new incarnation presents an ongoing continuity also in that respect. Upon the conclusion of
the incarnation, the triad envelope and causal envelope coalesce, and the causal molecules that
have incarnated are mixed with the others making up the causal envelope, so that, after a
number of incarnations, all molecules have incarnated and have been activated by the first
triad, this on the condition that the self in its development has reached the emotionality of
48:3 and the mentality of 47:5.
8
Skandhas are such atoms of tertiary matter as are taken from mans envelopes of
incarnation, are attached to the first triad, and accompany it at subsequent incarnations. When
the individuals causal envelope and first triad are dissolved, also the skandhas are dispersed.
Their constituent monads thereby pass into quaternary matter and can begin their own
evolution.
7.4 The Causal Envelope is the Isolating Envelope
In lower as well as in higher kingdoms, the individual always belongs to a group. The
monads in the lowest three natural kingdoms have their group-souls. The monads in the
superhuman kingdoms are members of collective beings. The human kingdom is the only
natural kingdom in which the self is cut off from direct contact with the consciousness of
other beings. Therefore, the human kingdom is the most difficult evolutionary kingdom.
2
Mans causal envelope is an isolating envelope which separates the monad consciousness
from the collective consciousness. In this isolation the individual must, through self-reliance
and self-determination, acquire unlosable self-identity, self-consciousness, learn how to apply
the laws of life without friction, especially the law of self-realization. Without these selfacquired abilities, the individual, when in the collective consciousness of higher kingdoms,
would be useless as an independent co-worker and would be a mindless robot, always
dependent on the insight of others, the will of others.
3
When man has acquired such an experience of life that he is no longer a danger to other
beings, has acquired freedom by granting freedom to everybody (also freedom from criticism
and any other encroachment on the life of another), has realized that law is the limit that
protects others from his arbitrariness and recklessness, then he is ready to become an aspirant
to discipleship. As a disciple he works purposefully to become a second self with a right to
knowledge of reality and life in order to realize the power of true freedom, to become a
highest cosmic self.
4
It is in the causal envelope that the self receives the proof that it is divine, god immanent, a
co-sharer in the cosmic total consciousness. It is in the triad envelope, however, that the self as a
first self must reach that insight before it receives the final proof of its potential godhood.
According to the law of self-realization, the individual must seek by himself, find by himself,
realize by himself. He never has confirmation that his insight is correct until he has found it by
himself. This demonstrates the mistake of blindly believing in that which life-ignorance asserts.
Only esoterics (a gift from the planetary hierarchy) can provide the world view and life view that
self-acquired common sense will finally accept and also find the proofs of its correctness.
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7.5 The Function of the Causal Envelope in Consciousness Development

In the process of evolution, the monad has begun activating physical consciousness in the
mineral kingdom and emotional consciousness in the vegetable kingdom to reach contact with
mental consciousness in the animal kingdom. When the monad has reached the highest animal
species, it is on the verge of being impressible by causal consciousness. Thereby the animal
monad can causalize, go through that process in which it is endowed with a causal envelope.
In the human kingdom, it is the task of the monad to acquire consciousness in that envelope.
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When the human monad has succeeded in acquiring full active subjective and objective
consciousness in the two kinds of causal matter 47:2,3, it has become a causal self.
Consciousness in the third and highest kind of matter of the causal envelope, mental atoms
(47:1), is attained only by the essential self (46-self).
2
The purpose of the causal envelope is to make causal consciousness possible, which is
required to understand the meaning of life, to understand ever higher worlds and kingdoms.
When this consciousness has enabled the self to ascertain facts in the worlds of man, the
worlds of the envelopes of incarnation, the self has acquired sufficient knowledge of reality
and life to see that further development means consciousness development and everincreasing participation in the cosmic total consciousness. Thereby the second triad essential
atom and essential consciousness are activated in a process that goes on until the self is able to
enter the consciousness of unity or of community, to acquire by itself an essential envelope,
move from its essential atom and liberate itself from its causal envelope. That envelope has
thereby fulfilled its mission and can be dissolved.
3
Thereupon the self has to form its own causal envelope by the aid of the vibrations of the
second triad mental atom and to attract the mental atoms that entered into the old envelope
with their consciousness and self-acquired experiences.
4
For the essential self there are other possibilities than the memory of the causal envelope to
acquire a knowledge of the past. The self can read it from the causal memory of the planet or
in the subconscious of the first triad, which now becomes accessible, if the self has cared to
keep the first triad in its new causal envelope.
7.6 The Causal Envelope is the Store of Experience
In the causal envelope exist all the mental atoms provided by Augoeides and possessed of his
own causal knowledge. In addition, the causal envelope contains all the superconscious
knowledge the self has acquired through its incarnations, all we can grasp by our own selfacquired understanding. That is how it always is, all the way through ever higher kingdoms.
Facts we may receive but we must ourselves put them in their correct places in our own
system, our fund of self-acquired understanding. This implies an inevitable limitation that
remains until we, as higher selves, have had experiences according to the law of self-realization.
2
The esoteric (causal) facts we gather exist as causal molecules in our causal envelope and
present themselves automatically in the brain-cells when they are needed. They make up a
fund that automatically, gradually attracts related facts and ideas. It is no use for the self in the
first triad to try to do that work by itself. Then nothing but fictions is produced; precisely what
is the great, seemingly irremediable error all occultists make. They believe they comprehend
what lies beyond the capacity of mental consciousness.
3
All that knowledge which our self can acquire and reproduce in the consciousness of its
material envelopes we can communicate to others and we can apprehend better and better as
our experience of life increases. However, we cannot communicate to others that knowledge
which makes up the central nucleus of our individual characters understanding. Now
occultists must not believe that the knowledge they are unable to communicate is part of their
individual character. It is a matter of something wholly different, far beyond the level of those
who still believe something.
1

7.7 The Energies of the Causal Envelope

Mental, emotional, physical (thought, feeling, action) is the path the energies of life take
through the chain of incarnations from the causal envelope (including the triad envelope). The
individuals prospect of expediently assimilating the energies pouring down from the causal
envelope into the lower envelopes is due to his stage of development and to the quality of his
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envelopes, which in its turn depends on his stage of development. At lower stages, the
individual is not sufficiently receptive to energies, which can be absorbed only by higher
molecular kinds already activated. In such cases the consciousness in the envelopes can give
energies a wrong direction, which has abortive results.
2
The energies of the three main departments stream down through the three centres of the
causal envelope: those of the first department, through the will centre; those of the second
department, through the unity centre; and those of the third department, through the
intelligence centre. The energies of the third department comprise the energies of the lower
four (47) departments. At mankinds present stage of development, departmental energies
can manifest themselves but imperfectly in the envelopes of men.
7.8 The Department of the Causal Envelope
By and large, statesmen belong to the first department; real philosophers like Platon, thus
not to be confused with the imaginative speculators of the history of philosophy, to the
second; the great psychologists, to the third; the cultural pioneers in literature, art, and music,
to the fourth; scientific pathfinders, to the fifth; religious reformers, to the sixth; and the great
financiers, to the seventh department. They have eventually become conscious in the
department to which their causal being belongs, which indicates where their future
contributions as causal selves are to be expected. The department of the causal envelope is
often important also to the monads further development as a second self. Essential (46) consciousness, consciousness of unity, displays two tendencies: wisdom and love. Extravert types
usually follow the line of wisdom; introvert types, the line of love.
2
People who have the first department in their causal envelopes have particular difficulties,
receptive as they are to energies coming direct from the planetary government. In human
beings, these energies often have a destructive effect. Only when people are able to rightly
apprehend the will energies and use them in the right manner, will their activity be
constructive, but then of great significance to the individual, the nation, to mankind. Atatrk
of Turkey was, on the whole, successful, whereas Stalin failed, instigator of the cold war as he
was, not to mention his domestic policies.
1

7.9 The Centres of the Causal Envelope

The causal envelope is the connection between the first and second triads. This connection
is made by a bridge between the first triad mental molecule and the second triad mental atom.
The bridge is the so-called twelve-petalled lotus, which has the central position in the causal
envelope and consists of four centres, each having three overlapping petals. Often there is
mention of three centres only, since the fourth, the inmost centre, develops only in the causal
self.
2
The petals of the lotus centre open as consciousness in them develops. The petals
are connected with the three units of each of the three triads. This connection is made up of
the sutratma and the antahkarana. (These Sanskrit designations, totally misinterpreted by
yogis, originate from the esoteric knowledge order instituted by Vyasa.) The lotus is mans
soul, although in the lower degrees of the knowledge orders they were content to call the
causal envelope itself the soul.
3
The three centres have been given the following names starting from the outermost:
1

the intelligence or knowledge centre

the unity centre
the will centre
6

These names are justified in so far as they indicate the dominant tendency in the three units
of the first triad: intelligence in the physical atom, aspiration to unity in the emotional atom,
and synthesizing will in the mental molecule. The names are improper in so far as all three
centres are connected with all three units of the first triad.
5
The three centres of the causal envelope receive energies from the three units of the second
triad to send them on to the first selfs envelopes of incarnation. From the mental atom of the
second triad energies pour down through the knowledge centre to the mental molecule of the
first triad; and through the mental envelope, to the throat centre and the brain-cells of the
disciple. From the essential atom of the second triad, energies stream through the unity centre,
the first triad emotional atom, and the emotional envelope to the heart centre of the etheric
envelope. From the superessential molecule of the second triad, energies stream through the
will centre to the physical atom of the first triad, and to the crown and basal centres of the
etheric envelope.
6
The knowledge centre of the causal envelope receives energies also from the unity and will
centres; and the unity centre, also from the will centre.
7
Each one of the three centres of the causal envelope has its particular function. The
knowledge centre makes it possible, through streams of energy from its three petals, to
express knowledge, love, and will in the two physical envelopes. The three petals of the unity
centre are, analogously, the condition of emotional knowledge in the emotional world,
emotional love (attraction), and emotional will. The three petals of the will centre make
mental knowledge, mental attraction, and mental will possible.
8
These energies from higher to lower worlds and envelopes are to be assimilated by the
individual himself according to the law of self-realization. The pertaining abilities show the
individuals stage of development in so far as they have opportunities to manifest themselves
in the physical world through the etheric envelope.
9
The three centres of the causal envelope are activated through the acquisition of
consciousness in the three kinds of causal matter (47:1-3): causal reason, causal unity, and
causal will with the cooperation of energies from the three units of the second triad through
Augoeides.
10
The knowledge centre has three contacts: physical, emotional, mental. According as the
man begins to acquire subjective causal consciousness, the monad contacts the knowledge
centre of the causal envelope via the thread of consciousness from the brain (the crown centre
of the etheric envelope) through the mental molecule of the first triad.
11
Until man has become an essential (46) self, the unity centre is his connection between
emotional and essential consciousness. Emotional consciousness thus is the energy factor that
is necessary for the monad in the first triad to move to the second triad. The three contacts of
the unity centre are developed through co-operation, loving understanding, and universal
brotherhood.
12
The will centre is activated by active sympathy, right attitude to life, and acts of sacrifice.
7.10 The Causal Envelope is Mans Highest Envelope
Human (self-acquired) objective consciousness never reaches beyond 48:2, the highest
emotionality.
2
As a disciple of the planetary hierarchy man, from being a mental self, can become a causal
self and, as a causal self, acquire mental-causal objective consciousness (47:2-7) beside
objective consciousness in worlds 48:2-7 and 49:2-7.
3
Thus no individual in the human kingdom can acquire consciousness of a higher kind than
causal consciousness. If anything else is asserted, then it is a case of self-deception,
unfortunately a common phenomenon.
1

It has proved increasingly necessary to establish these limits to human consciousness

against the unfounded claims by innumerable occultists, clairvoyants, and yogis. They are
unable to determine the limits to their own consciousness. Only individuals of the fifth natural
kingdom are able to do that.
5
There is a perfect confusion in this respect in the occult sects. Theosophists have the most
exaggerated ideas of the capacities of a causal self, an essential self, and still higher selves.
6
The study of previous incarnations is of importance only insofar as it concerns the selfs
consciousness development and acquisition of the fundamental qualities belonging to the
different stages of development. The only human envelope where this consciousness
development can be read off at all is the causal envelope. Thus only causal selves (with
incipient essential consciousness, 46:5-7) are able to make such studies. Any other alleged
study of previous incarnations is unessential and will easily mislead those who engage in it.
7
The imaginings of occultists and clairvoyants about their own and other peoples previous
incarnations are part of the speculation to which those categories unresistingly fall victims.
7.11 The Age of the Causal Envelope
People are found at different stages of development, which is due to the age of their causal
envelopes, the time when the monads passed from the animal to the human kingdom.
2
Since the cosmos is a gigantic process of development, all kingdoms in nature are also age
classes determined by the different times of the monads introduction from chaos to the
cosmos, which from the beginning is of small dimensions but grows unceasingly in extent
through this very supply of monads. The higher kingdom the monad has attained, the older it
is in the cosmos.
3
The majority of those who causalized on our planet some 21 million years ago are still at
the stage of barbarism. Those who are found at higher stages have mostly causalized earlier on
another planet or in another solar system, where they certainly were laggards but nevertheless
had reached a higher stage of development.
4
It is easier to understand the time periods mentioned when you know that monads incarnate
in series and moreover spend most of their time asleep in their causal envelopes. The series of
incarnations are determined by several factors. As a rule the decisive factor is the possibilities
of development existing for the individual (more exactly: the clan to which the individual
belongs). The higher the stage of development the individual has reached, the more factors
make themselves felt.
5
The different stages of development, determined by the age of the individuals causal
envelopes, afford the explanation why there are such great differences in understanding of life,
independently of formal education in school and at the university. On the other hand, they do
not explain such so-called talent as is due to the quality of the brain. Nor do they explain
skills, talents, genius in technical respects. The latter are due to the fact that some particular
ability has been cultivated during several incarnations and the possibility has been given in a
new incarnation to resuscitate it. There are latent geniuses who on account of the quality of the
etheric envelope (the reaping envelope) and the absence of certain horoscope vibrations suffer
from unrequited love for some certain art, etc. To realize this in time may save the
individual from many disappointments.
6
The teaching of predestination is a false teaching. The fact that out of human beings,
whose causal envelopes are of the same age, some reach the fifth kingdom before the others is
due to the previous experience of the monadthe self. Besides, all do not learn equally fast;
many there are who tarry in the worlds of man, since they do not want to liberate themselves
from their dependence on the pertaining kinds of consciousness. Such people are irresistibly
attracted by physical life.
1

The older the causal envelope and the higher the level of development, the more active are
the centres of the envelopes of incarnation, the stronger the vibrations, the more the energies
pouring in work together, the greater the effect of the energies pouring out of the various
envelopes.
8
The expedient distribution of the energies of the etheric envelope to the glandular system,
heart (blood), and nervous system of the organism is due to the individuals level, as well as to
his general attitude, and to the departments of his envelopes. That general attitude which
brings about automatic development includes aspiration to unity, forgetfulness of ones own
self, measures taken to promote inner harmony from which follow outer harmonious
relationships.

CAUSAL CONSCIOUSNESS
7.12 The Passive Consciousness of the Causal Envelope
In the incarnations immediately following causalization, passive causal consciousness is
not aware even of the envelopes of incarnation. It is only after a long series of incarnations, in
which the causal matter activated in the triad envelope has been supplied to the greater causal
envelope, that passive causal consciousness can as a silent witness observe the experiences of
the envelopes of incarnation. Even subsequently the causal envelope by and large serves only
as a collector envelope of activated causal molecular kinds. It is only as the knowledge centre
of the causal envelope begins to be activated that the causal envelope shares in the experience
of the envelopes of incarnation.
2
Consciousness in 47:3 largely corresponds to the knowledge centre of the causal envelope;
consciousness in 47:2, to the unity centre; and consciousness in 47:1, to the will centre. In the
incarnations in which the triad envelope belongs to the second department, 47:2 molecules are
particularly activated, which facilitates the selfs striving in 48:2 to come in contact with
essential (46) consciousness. The corresponding is true of the first department in the triad
envelope and 45-consciousness: an active, energetic life, whether rightly directed is another
matter. Only at the higher emotional stage and at the mental stage is man able to make use of
the pertaining possibilities and opportunities.
3
It is interesting that the difference there is between the collective consciousness of the
causal envelope and the causal selfs self-acquired power of identification with causal
consciousness applies analogously to the selfs consciousness expansion through all the
worlds of ever higher kingdoms. The worlds are collective consciousnesses, and it is with
those that the self must gradually identify itself to reach sovereignty in the three aspects of
reality of the various worlds.
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7.13 The Downscaling of Causal Ideas

If anything of the causal ideas is to be apprehended by those who are not causally
conscious, it must be scaled down into idiologies for intellectuals and into poetry for mystics.
A typical example of emotional scaling down is Walt Whitman. He studied everything
published by the writers of his time, Emerson, Blavatsky, etc., and made poetry out of the
ideas he managed to pick up. It is characteristic that the Mao Chinese appreciate him as the
foremost Western poet and translate his poems into Chinese.
2
A serious obstacle to the downscaling of ideas is the fact that national languages are in
want of words by which to rightly describe (define) the content of reality of those ideas. It is
one of the purposes of esoterics to present mankind with new words (preferably international
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words) for hitherto unknown realities just as science coins new words for new discoveries.
3
In this connection it should be emphasized that Laurency does not write for occultists but
in order to supply philosophers and scientists with an acceptable ideology when, a few
generations hence, they will be forced to look about for such a one when they have seen that
their fictional systems are both untenable and hostile to life.
7.14 Causal Consciousness Makes Self-Consciousness Possible
Only the esoteric knowledge can rationally explain self-consciousness. Without this
knowledge man remains uncertain of his own self, uncertain what the self is.
2
It is causal consciousness that makes self-consciousness possible. Self-identity is the
individuals first contact with causal consciousness, the indication of the fact that the monad
in the first triad is found in a causal envelope and has become isolated (in this envelope) from
the group-souls of lower kingdoms as well as the collective beings of higher kingdoms.
3
It is the isolation of the monad in the causal envelope that makes the monad consciousness
aware of the opposition between self and not-self, an opposition that disappears when the self
has acquired self-consciousness in the essential (46) envelope. It is as an isolated self that the
individual has to acquire self-reliance and self-determination before it can enter unity with its
self-identity preserved.
4
In general it is at the age of three that the matter of the causal envelope has penetrated the
physical organism of man in a new incarnation and the child becomes self-conscious.
5
At the dissolution of the envelopes, the selfs continuity of consciousness vanishes, and so
the individual in each new incarnation believes that he is another individual. He acquires
unlosable self-identity only by acquiring objective causal consciousness, which enables him to
study all the incarnations the causal envelope has done ever since its formation at the monads
transition from the animal to the human kingdom.
6
The loss of his continuity of consciousness is actually the greatest disaster that can befall
the individual.
7
At the remould of the solar system, all material forms of the system, and thus all individual
envelopes, dissolve. Those who have not by then acquired cosmic consciousness (42) will
remain unconscious until they are able, in the new solar system, to self-activate their latent
capacity, which may be a long time in coming.
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7.15 Active Causal Consciousness

The monads active consciousness in causal matter is usually called intuition in
esoterics. Since the word intuition, on account of the abuse of words by life-ignorance, has
become ambiguous and thus unusable, it is the most suitably replaced with the exact term,
active causal consciousness. This denotes that causal consciousness which only the causal
self acquires. However, if it is clear from the context that a causal self is intended, it is
sufficient to use the shorter term causal consciousness, provided you remember that you
mean the active, permanent causal consciousness and not the passive, sporadic one that may
occur at the stages of culture and humanity.
2
The most salient characteristic of active causal consciousness is its ability to see the causes
of effects, which its very name indicates. Subjective causal consciousness perceives the world
of causal ideas. Objective causal consciousness sees the causes of events in the material
worlds of the lowest three atomic kinds (4749).
3
The subjective consciousness aspect does not suffice to ascertain the course of events. That
would require access to the collective consciousness of the planetary government. To ascertain
the course of events in the worlds of man, it is necessary to have objective causal
consciousness, to be a causal self.
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By and large, extraverts are objectivists and introverts subjectivists in their attitude to
reality. Introverts find it easier to contact essential (46) consciousness; extraverts, causal
consciousness.
5
Causal consciousness affords us knowledge of material reality; and essential (46)
consciousness, knowledge of the reality content of consciousness. This holds the solution of
the problem of the possibility of knowledge, a problem that philosophers are unable to solve.
Normal man can acquire knowledge of the gross physical, visible world. Those having
etheric vision (improperly called clairvoyants) can acquire knowledge of 49:3,4; and
emotional clairvoyants, of phenomena in the emotional world, though they are unable to judge
their reality content. That is the limit to mans possible objective knowledge. Anyone who has
a clear idea of these matters need not fall a victim to authorities and prophets of all kinds.
6
Before the self can acquire active causal consciousness it must have liberated itself from
emotional illusoriness and mental fictitiousness, the imagination and speculation of ignorance
in the worlds of man.
7
Causal consciousness is joy. The cultivation of joy is a way to conquer causal
consciousness. The esoterician knows that all will be well in the end. Everybody has a causal
envelope, everybody will become a causal self, everybody will enter unity. That knowledge is
the ground of joy.
7.16 The Activation of Causal Consciousness
The quintessence of the first selfs experience is collected automatically by the
subconscious of the first triad. This store is only a fund that the self has to go on building, a
fund that is the condition of a general understanding of life. Unlike this subconscious of the
triad, which only makes up the latent memory of things experienced, causal consciousness
absorbs essentials. For the causal being is during incarnation not just a passive collector of
experience of life but also an active participator in the work of Augoeides.
2
It is true that at lower stages human experiences and interests are of such a nature that
causal consciousness has no use of them. But when the individual has reached the higher
emotional stage (the stage of the mystic), begins to take an interest in the unity of life, and
makes his contribution in some respect for mankind, evolution, and unity, then his experience
of life becomes important also for the causal self in the making.
3
The first self makes a real contribution only when the individual begins to work up his
experiences in order to get perspectives on existence. When the individual has gathered
sufficient experience to see the absurdity, relatively speaking, and limitation of the first selfs
striving and has not much more to learn from life, then he will be actively prepared to
understand more and more. Then, too, he will be ripe for that expansion of consciousness
which a conscious contact with causal consciousness entails.
4
In order to clearly understand these processes you must know the difference between the
causal being (causal envelope), Augoeides, and the causal self. Those are three realities which
most occultists have not learnt to differentiate. Often they use terms such as the Ego or the
soul without discrimination about all three. More about this in the section on Augoeides.
5
The term causal being refers to the causal envelope and to man as a possessor of such an
envelope. This term does not differentiate between the greater causal envelope and the lesser
triad envelope.
6
Man is a causal being, since he received a causal envelope at the monads transition from
the animal to the human kingdom. In this envelope he is an evolutionary monad in a first triad.
As a causal being he is still a first self and remains a first self until he becomes a causal self.
7
The term causal self refers to that stage of development where the human monad has
become self-conscious in the causal envelope. Man can momentarily become subjectively
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conscious in 47:3 or 47:2 or, as in theurgy, meet Augoeides long before he has achieved active
subjective and objective permanent consciousness in his causal envelope, long before he has
become a causal self.
8
The causal envelope (causal being) is to begin with the collector envelope of the
experience of the self in the envelopes of incarnation. It is from the beginning the silent
witness that sees, hears, and records everything with an unlosable memory of all
incarnations.
9
The passive consciousness of the causal envelope can be activated by Augoeides, by the
causal self in the causal world, and by vibrations from higher worlds. That consciousness can
begin to be activated by the self when it has reached the stage of culture, the emotional stage
of the mystic (48:3). Having so acquired the energies of attraction, the self can, via the unity
centre of the causal envelope, reach its second triad essential atom in the lowest molecular
kind of the essential world (46:7) and thereby begin to activate the causal consciousness of the
second triad.
10
When the consciousness of causal matter begins to be activated, primarily the matter of
the triad envelope is activated. When the incarnation has been concluded and the triad
envelope coalesces with the causal envelope, the activated matter of the triad envelope mixes
with the matter of the causal envelope. Therefore, the total causal matter is ever more
activated with each incarnation. Finally, the monad is able to be as active in the greater
envelope as in the triad envelope. Having achieved this, the monad is a causal self.
11
The first sign that subjective causal consciousness begins to assert itself is the sense of
responsibility, not just for the individual himself and his small circle of relatives and friends,
but for everybody.
12
It is in the triad envelope that subjective causal consciousness expresses itself before
objective causal consciousness has been acquired. This subjective causal consciousness is
often mistaken. Such mistakes can also be directed to Augoeides in the greater causal
envelope and cause conflict with him.
13
Also the material energies that Augoeides sends down through the envelopes of
incarnation cause conflict between the envelopes. This he does deliberately in order that the
self develop by solving the problems that arise in the process.
14
Control of consciousness and daily meditation are conditions to acquire causal
consciousness. The usual meditation exercises may be good preliminaries to the right, not yet
publicized esoteric ones. It is through esoterics, the knowledge of reality, that the individual
gets the requisite meditation materials for the right activation of causal consciousness and
contacts that consciousness.
15
Without this knowledge, meditation is a random search, most often resulting in an
emotional system of illusions or a mental system of fictions of which religious, philosophical,
or occult systems are examples. All too many of the occult systems of meditation are abortive,
misleading, and some of them even harmful. You do not play with consciousness energies
without paying the penalty.
16
Like philosophers, occultists apparently have an incurable tendency to believe that their
vagaries are true ideas. When will they learn to see that the knowledge is acquired only in the
second triad and that the way to that goes through discipleship? Regrettably, there are black
masters. Anyone who lives for unity (the opposite of repulsion, division, exclusion of
people), however, need not become their victim.
17
A contact with causal consciousness is achieved through 48:2,3 as well as through 47:4,5.
Those kinds of matter thus must be activated. The humanist must become a saint again in
order to be able to influence passive essential (46) consciousness into activity.
18
Anyone who thinks in accord with reality attracts more and more ideas from the world of
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ideas (molecules from the causal world).

19
In order to become a second self, the individual must disregard the matter aspect and try
to live in the consciousness aspect. From having been a body that has a soul he must
become a soul that has a body, an essential difference.
20
The condition to acquire causal consciousness is also that the individual, through
sufficient experience of life (level achieved), has acquired the necessary trust in his
Augoeides, the planetary hierarchy, and the Law. The ancients (initiates) called this trust in
life faith, an abortive expression whose use has had the most deplorable consequences in
everything in the way of religion.
21
Every causal quality that the monad acquires automatically as a first self (the
understanding of others, for example) is a power and a step on the path to the causal world.
22
We develop by solving the problems of life, and those problems we solve by serving life,
for it is in service that we find the problems and their solution. On lower levels, service entails
a good sowing, and on higher levels, when we have learnt how to think and act in accord with
the laws of life, it entails ever higher syntheses.
23
Serving mankind, the will, the ability to help people where they are standing is a source of
joy and makes its easier for us to forget the egoistic self.
24
Through loving understanding man activates the causal as well as the essential (46) part of
his superconscious until he can sense these consciousnesses spontaneously as intuition in
his waking consciousness. In this work he receives help from Augoeides, who always
strengthens every effort towards unity. It is through the energies of unity that causal
consciousness is activated.
25
That is why in esoteric history Christos teaching of love is regarded as a step forward
beyond the basic orientation intended by the Buddhas teaching of wisdom. Both were totally
misinterpreted, which was perhaps inevitable at the general stage of development mankind
then was found at. It remains to be seen whether mankind nowadays has reached sufficiently
far to rightly conceive the teachings of the two. The unspeakable suffering mankind has gone
through during the zodiacal epoch of Pisces, of 2500 years, should have taught mankind
something; should have taught it what hatred and selfishness, phenomena of the lower
emotional stage, must result in. In their total ignorance of life and blindness in life people
accuse life of the reaping they have sown themselves.
26
Most people wander in darkness without knowing it. Only when you sense the darkness it
becomes a real burden to you. And that is the lot of man until he has acquired causal
consciousness. It is true that esoterics grants a vision of existence and shows the way.
Walking the way, however, is what we all have to do, facing the countless problems of action
and an uncertain future.
7.17 Man from Causal Being to Causal Self
To the human monad in the first triad, the causal being is the god in man. The monad
itself is potentially divine as a sharer in the total consciousness. Through evolution, it
actualizes its potential divinity.
2
The causal being is mans soul. By himself, man can know nothing of this soul during
his entire sojourn in the human kingdom as a man. The first self cannot ascertain the existence
of his soul.
3
Thus the causal envelope is mans proper being, even though he is not conscious in that
envelope. The first conscious contact with that envelope he can achieve at the higher
emotional stage (48:3) and one more possibility of contact at the higher mental stage (47:5).
The acquisition of subjective causal consciousness is a slow process through the incarnations.
Objective causal consciousness is possessed only by causal selves.
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Three stages of the selfs relation to the causal being can be distinguished:
the self without consciousness in the causal envelope (at the stages of barbarism and
civilization),
the self slowly waking up subjectively in the envelope (at the stages of culture and
humanity) but therefore not aware of the existence of the causal envelope,
the self as a causal self with full, active subjective and objective self-consciousness (the I
am I of self-identity) in the causal kinds of matter 47:2,3 and in the human worlds
(47:449:7).
5
As a first self and before the self has become a causal self, man is unconsciously a victim
of the energies in the matters of his worlds. He cannot understand why his incarnation is
abortive. It is considered to be abortive if man does not succeed in becoming a causal self.
That is of course impossible for others than mental selves.
6
It involves a sacrifice to liberate yourself from the personalities you love with selfish love,
but this is facilitated by the realizations that, in so doing, you are able to benefit their higher
selves (their causal beings) the more, and that egoistic love does not free people but binds
them.
7
At the present stage of mankinds development, the self in the first triad in the triad
envelope is mostly centred in the emotional envelope but moves to the etheric envelope or
mental envelope if the departmental energies in them call for the selfs attention.
8
At the same time, Augoeides in the causal envelope is able to activate the causal being and
to assert himself in some other envelope. This can result in problems that must be solved.
9
The self becomes a causal self when in the second triad mental atom it controls the two
molecular matters of the causal envelope (47:2,3). That is a process and a work which man
achieves as an aspirant to discipleship. When he has finally performed it, he becomes a
disciple.
10
In and through the causal envelope, man prepares his transition to the fifth natural
kingdom, the essential (46) consciousness of community, the first conscious contact with the
cosmic total consciousness. The causal world, the world of ideas, is of course the goal of man
as a first self, but it is only the beginning of ever higher life. Until man has acquired
essential consciousness, he is not free from lower influences; there always remains some
egoism of the individual, clan, class, or national kind. That old saw, kill out desire, is
wrong, as usual. Emotional energy needs to be rerouted and directed to acquisition of higher
kinds of consciousness.
7.18 THE CAUSAL WORLD
Until the year 1925 the causal world was the common meeting-ground for all members of
the planetary hierarchy. Nowadays, the essential world (46) is their lowest world. However,
the globe-memory of the causal world contains that knowledge which causal selves and the
causal consciousness of higher selves have thought and which is preserved in causal
molecules and mental atoms. That is why the causal world is the world of ideas. The very
globe-memory is made up of the collective memory of mental atoms (47:1), accessible to all
46-selves. The causal memory is at the same time the planetary memory proper. The 46memory is the collective memory of the planetary chain, and the 45-memory is the lowest
solar systemic memory common to all the planets, the remembrance of all vibrations that have
ever occurred in the lower five solar systemic and planetary atomic worlds. The higher
memories contain the lower ones.
2
All knowledge of everything in the worlds of man is contained in the ideas of the causal
world. We acquire knowledge by receiving ideas and by ascertaining the reality content of
these ideas, their agreement with reality. All human knowledge comes from the world of
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ideas. That is an esoteric axiom. The idea is the primary thing. Reception of causal ideas has
nothing to do with the new discoveries we may accidentally make in connection with what we
already know. The knowledge also depends on remembrance anew, which is a consequence of
the fact that it has been acquired in a previous incarnation and subsequently remains latently
in the subconscious of the triad. But originally we received it from the world of Platonic ideas,
which contains everything knowable about the physical, emotional, and mental worlds.
7.19 TERMINOLOGY
Every esoteric writer has his own terminology so that there is a complete muddle with
ensuing confusion of ideas in their readers. One example of this is the traditional term soul
in the esoteric literature.
2
The ancients called the causal envelope the soul. Only the Pythagoreans had a special
term for the monad, or the self. All the other esoteric schools used the term soul also in this
sense as in several others. Thus they mean by the soul now the monad (the individual, the
self), now the causal envelope, now the causal self, now Augoeides, now the second triad,
now the second self, now even the consciousness aspect generally. It is said that the soul is
omniscient and omnipotent (in the worlds of man). Then it is said that the soul incarnates in
order to have experiences, that the soul makes the mistake of identifying itself with its
envelopes of incarnation, etc. One esoteric writer calls the incarnating triad envelope the
human soul and the greater causal envelope, now the soul, now the over-soul.
3
Such carelessness must of course entail obscurity and confusion of ideas. If the intention of
the writers was to cultivate the intuition of their readers by forcing them to learn to understand
what in various contexts is meant by soul, then the writers have probably underrated the
difficulty or overestimated the prospects of non-initiates to comprehend before they have got
the basic concepts clearly defined once and for all.
4
In order to differentiate between monadindividualself and temporary incarnation, the
theosophists called the greater causal envelope the individual and the incarnating part the
personality, a practical distinction provided you know what the terms mean. This division
was misleading because, when incarnating, the self (individual) goes along in the triad in the
lesser causal envelope and so the difference between individual and personality in reality
disappears. The lack of facts caused much obscurity, a circumstance that has prejudiced
theosophy and still deters researchers who think logically. You cannot help wondering what
the result would have been if, from the very beginning of theosophy, the Pythagorean mental
system had been presented in the logical form required by Western thinking or if Saint
Germain had been permitted to publicize the Rosicrucian system. Instead, the theosophical
pioneers planned to reform Buddhism, which met with a complete failure.
5
In the occult literature there is still much confusion about the nature of the so-called Ego.
The Ego puts down a fragment of itself into the personality in order to experience the
vibrations of the lower planes. (Leadbeater) That is supposed to be a description of the
division of the causal envelope at incarnation. (Personality = the incarnating causal envelope =
the triad envelope.) However, this is not done by the self (the monad), but by Augoeides. The
self sleeps in the causal envelope until it is awakened through a new incarnation. The Ego is
taken in a double sense: the causal envelope and the second triad. Augoeides of course needs
no such experiences, which are over and done with in past eons. Those Augoeides, who
supervise the human consciousness development, follow a particular line of cosmic evolution
thanks to their experience of monads with basic repulsive tendency of the worst kind.
6
The causal envelope corresponds to the holy spirit of the gnosticians; the essential (46)
envelope, to the son; and the manifestal atom, to the father. Causal matter, however, is no
more spiritual than any other matter, if by spirit you mean, like Pythagoras, the
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consciousness of matter. All matter is holy, for it is formed out of primordial atoms sharing
in the cosmic total consciousness. Thus all worlds are holy. The planetary hierarchy makes no
difference between holy and profane. That division is a theological mistake.
7
So far from understanding reality are theologians. There is no sin (crime against an
infinite being), only mistakes about the laws of life; mistakes which all make and of which
they must reap the consequences until they have learnt to apply the laws rightly. Mistakes
retard consciousness development and increase the number of incarnations.
8
The whole cosmos consists of individuals (primordial atoms), and everyone is found
somewhere on the way to the final goal of life. The guarantee that they will reach their goal
some time is their unlosable share in the cosmic total consciousness, which is god. That is
also why all are one.
9
There are risks to publicizing esoteric facts. For sooner or later they will be picked up by
some mystic with a Messiah complex who believes he is called to proclaim the one and only
truth. After such a sect-founder has misunderstood these facts he puts them into an
imaginative system by which he manages to dupe a lot of ignorant people.
10
That gnostic symbol, transfiguration, has been misinterpreted, of course, like all esoteric
symbols. A modern occult sect, Lectorium Rosicrucianum, has expounded it as the
practically used teaching of how man is born again. If the true explanation is given, there is
a risk that it will be deftly exploited in some new sect, yet it should be given. The very
formulation born again (taken from the Gospels) has been turned into a theological
construction. Transfiguration was the gnostic term of that process of consciousness which a
disciple of the planetary hierarchy went through when the monad moved from the first triad
mental molecule to the second triad mental atom. The process had the result that the mental
self became a causal self.
11
The founder of the said Rosicrucian sect, J. van Rijckenborgh, also managed to pick up an
esoteric fact that was allowed for publication in 1950 only, namely primordial atoms. This
he of course misunderstood, which appears in the following piffle: As long as the outer man
does not correspond to the inmost meaning of his life, his primordial atom ... When the
individual, upon the completion of his evolution and at the end of tens of thousands of eons,
reaches the highest cosmic kingdom, then and only then will he correspond to his
primordial atom.

The above text constitutes the essay The Causal Being by Henry T. Laurency.
The essay is the seventh section of the book The Way of Man by Henry T. Laurency.
The text is a translation from the Swedish by Lars Adelskogh. The original translation,
made in 1997, was revised by Lars Adelskogh in 2013. The present text is the revised one.
Copyright 1997 and 2013 by the Henry T. Laurency Publishing Foundation. All rights
reserved.

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